Cunningham Falls -- The Redemption!

This Saturday's hike was at Cunningham Falls. I met up with my coach Melissa and we headed over to the Falls for an 8 mile hike with about a 1000 foot elevation. I will admit that I was a bit nervous about the hike because of my fear of getting a blister and the weakness of my ankle. I prepared as best I could by putting moleskin on my feet where they were blister-prone and by slathering Body Glide on my feet and ankles. My coach made a suggestion that I re-tie my boots after extended uphills or downhills. This actually helped a lot and it helped with my weak ankle.

Cunningham Falls was one of the most enjoyable hikes so far. Beautiful scenery and views. It was rocky, but not as bad as Weverton Cliffs. Melissa was great on the hike, she kept us going and to be honest, it didn't even feel like we had hiked that far!

I still had to stop briefly on the incline, but not for as long, and I really wasn't breathing nearly as hard, although I did sweat a lot. (Sorry I know women are supposed to 'glisten' not 'sweat', but my body has not yet received the memo!) I even had energy left over after the hike. I would have loved to tack on another 600 ft climb, but my ankle was still tweaked and we decided that it was better for me to rest it than push it.

In other news, I picked my 1st and 2nd choices for my hikes in Yosemite. I discussed them with Melissa and she thinks that either choice would be fine for me. It is starting to sink in that I'm heading to Yosemite and hiking in about a month!

Now all I need is to raise the remaining funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I'll be sweetening the pot for those folks who have not yet made the leap to become my virtual team member. AND I'll be offering an incentive to those who have already donated. We are so close guys, we only need $2200 to make the minimum!

Weverton Cliffs Hike

A belated Happy Mother's Day to all those who are mothers both biologically and emotionally! You all are truly blessings from God!

Pre-Game Show!

Well, I was a little bit more organized this week. I had all my stuff in my camelbak and my 'after hike bag' all ready to go. I got up and had my breakfast and managed to only be 5 minutes late to the meeting point. Of course, in my rush to be so organized, I forgot my camera so I had to once again ask my team to forward me their pictures! I met up with the 12 mile hikers and our mentor Kathy drove us the rest of the way to the trail head.
The Main Event!

Well my goal this week was to actually nail the 12 mile hike. I know I'm planning to only do a 9 mile hike in Yosemite, but I like to use the training hikes to work on elevations and stamina.

Kathy, my mentor and personal trainer for the day decided to walk ahead to pull me to increase my pacing a bit. Overall it worked really well. I think we did a pretty good pace for me, just a bit under a 2 mph. We did stop and see several sights; we went to Weverton Cliffs and then we stopped at the Garvey Shelter. The cliffs were beautiful. Such a great view -- so I've included it here for your enjoyment. I realized that I had a bit of a fear of being on the edge of the cliffs, so I didn't get out that far, but I did get to see it! We also hiked up to the shelter, there were a couple of hikers in residence. Apparently its a covered area for those brave backpackers that are sleeping on the trail. There's a cooler of some type for food and a toilet -- I guess it would be luxury if you had walked many, many miles on the AT and needed a place to crash.

The trail was pretty steep at the beginning, then it was rocky and not completely flat, but not painfully steep. One of the folks we met on the trail said that there were 16 switchbacks going up the hill. Trust me when I said I didn't notice in the morning on the way up. It was super windy on Saturday so that kept me from sweating to death :-P Overall though, the hike was really pretty -- we saw lots of butterflies, flowers, and a frog or two. The group ahead of us said that they saw snakes, but I think they scared them off for us!

I did pretty well overall but I think my energy crashed around mile 10... But thanks to Kathy for keeping it going! She has tons of energy and kept me moving. I also thank those folks on the trail that I talked to on the way back. It was what I needed to take my mind off of the distance. Since it was an out and back, I did have to go back down the 16 switchbacks. Wow -- I didn't realize how tight the trail was and I could sympathize with one of the boy scouts who was really afraid of the height. Unfortunately I did fall going down one of the switchbacks, but fortunately I just sat down instead of falling forward. :-) As we went further down the hill we encountered a tree that had fallen over the trail since we had gone up earlier in the morning. Did I mention that it was really windy? So yup, once again, I crawled UNDER a tree to keep going down the hill.

POST GAME!!

Finally we got down the hill and to the car with some ice cold tea! I got my boots off and discovered that I had some pretty bad blisters on my right foot! Oh well, it was worth it cause I did what I set out to do -- finish a 12 mile hike!!!

STILL NEED YOUR HELP!

There is a reason that I'm putting myself through this. I want to bring people's awareness to the needs of those suffering with blood-related cancers. The real goal here is to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. With your help and support we can find a cure! Please take the time to go out to my website and contribute today: http://pages.teamintraining.org/md/Yosemit110/WinForOthers. Then forward the website to anyone else that you think will want to contribute.

We're Halfway Through the Training!

TRAINING HIKE: Washington Monument State Park

Yesterday's training hike was at Washington Monument State Park; its on a part of the Appalachian Trail that runs through Maryland. We had 3 potential mileage levels; 7 miles, 10.5 miles, and 12.5 miles. My goal was to try to make the 10.5 mile level, but I only needed to do 7 miles for the particular hike I want to do. However, since I don't get a lot of opporutunity to train for elevation and hills I wanted to do more of than the minimum. I am happy to say that I managed to make about 9 miles yesterday. I did 2 700 foot climbs.... I finished about the same time as those folks that did 12.5 miles, but I did finish and that's important. We started about 8 am and were back in cars and on the way home around 2 pm. Since all the hikes that I am considering are between 8 and 9 miles, I now have some confidence that I can finish the hike in Yosemite!

While we were out on the trail yesterday, we saw some park volunteers that were working on the trails. We saw the cub scouts out hiking the trail. We saw groups of friends out for a hike and we even saw some older folks out hiking the trail too!

I want to say a special thanks to Coach Kate who was my personal trainer yesterday! She was sweet enough to hike with me at my pace and give me lots of encouragement on the way. She helped me with some trail reading and helped me with the whole off-trail nature calls thing. Indeed Kate and Melissa did a great job with yesterday's hike and definitely help make a novice like me feel comfortable and wanting to get back out there the next week!

I also wanted to share some lessons I learned on the trail yesterday:

1. Do not put trail mix that has chocolate squares into your pocket. You just end up with a bag of gooey mess.
2. Bring moleskin to protect your feet from getting blisters... and then USE IT!
3. Yes you will in fact drink all your water... and your gatorade too!
4. Apparently I now need a belt for my hiking shorts. Its not cute to have to keep pulling your shorts up :-)
5. When nature calls, you are not necessarily walking in a straight line to find a bit of privacy :-)


Other cool things in the news:

I am now a card carrying member of the American Hiking Society -- that is one of the perks of signing up for the TNT Hiking program. I was very excited to get my card in the mail and am now anxiously awaing these magazines. I feel like I'm truly 'outdoorsy' now :-) Cause all it takes is a card and a magazine!! But seriously though, hiking out in different locations every week has given me more of an appreciation of the outdoors and the beauty that is right outside our front door!


DON'T FORGET THE CAUSE:

I want you all to know that I am having a blast doing the hiking and training, but the true focus is to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We need your help to raise funding to find a cure for blood cancers. I know that they can make it if we all pull together to support them. Please take the time to go out to my website and contribute today: http://pages.teamintraining.org/md/Yosemit110/WinForOthers. Then forward the website to anyone else that you think will want to contribute.